Zelenskyy, Zaluzhnyi must demonstrate there is no split among leadership

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-16, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"The President and the Commander-in-Chief should hold a joint press conference or statement and demonstrate to the society that there is no split and there will be no split. It should be explained that everyone is focused only on the victory of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said.

In his view, different opinions within the political and military leadership of the state are a sign of democracy.

"Naturally, there can be different positions. This is a sign of an adequate, competitive system of governance. When different branches of government and institutions have different views that everyone defends, it is normal. But when these views are used to discredit both the unity in the country and the political and military leadership, then we cannot neglect this matter," Yatsenyuk said.

Society is discussing this issue. However, this split a priori cannot happen, because it is the road to Ukraine's defeat.

"Indeed, the society is tired, traumatized and any ‘note of the wrong music’ is very confusing for people. Therefore, I am convinced that different views are normal. But the total unity and joint work of everyone in the country, from the president, the commander-in-chief to every Ukrainian, is the basis of our victory," he added.

• On November 1, the Economist published Valeriy Zaluzhnyi's column for the first time since December 2022.
• The Commander-in-Chief noted that the Russian war against Ukraine could enter a more dangerous phase and outlined priority directions for preventing this. Zaluzhnyi explained what is needed to break the stalemate in the war with Russia.  He also named 5 priorities that will prevent the war from turning into a positional war.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the article by the Commander-in-Chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, and said that Ukraine was not in a stalemate.
• In addition, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Ihor Zhovkva, commenting on the article by  Valeriy Zaluzhnyi in The Economist, said that the military should not make public what is happening at the front.
• ISW analyzed Zaluzhnyi's article on positional warfare in Ukraine.
• Later, the NYT article noted that Zelenskyy's rebukes against Zaluzhnyi indicate a split in the Ukrainian leadership.
• On November 7, Russian sources launched a diplomatic fake involving the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who allegedly called for a coup d'état. At the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia launched similar diplomatic fakes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.